Chapter 2 - Seven Missing Years
Daniel moved between Elena and the door.
“Who has a key?”
Elena whispered one name.
“Your father.”
Daniel went still.
“My father is dead.”
The lock clicked.
Elena grabbed Lily from her room.
Then the door opened.
A man in his sixties stood outside.
He wasn't Daniel's father.
But Daniel knew him.
Charles Voss had served as Daniel's father's attorney for more than twenty years.
Charles looked older now, but his expression hadn't changed.
Controlled.
Cold.
Always measuring.
“Daniel,” he said.
Daniel blocked the doorway.
“What are you doing here?”
Charles looked past him toward Elena.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“You have a key to her apartment.”
“I manage certain financial arrangements.”
Elena held Lily close.
“Go away, Charles.”
Lily stared at him with obvious fear.
Daniel noticed.
That was enough.
“You heard her.”
Charles smiled faintly.
“You've discovered the child.”
Daniel stepped into the hallway and pulled the door nearly closed behind him.
“Careful.”
“About what?”
“About assuming you've discovered the truth merely because you've discovered one secret.”
Daniel had negotiated against billionaires without blinking.
Yet Charles's words chilled him.
“What did my father have to do with Elena?”
Charles straightened his coat.
“Ask her.”
“I am asking you.”
“And I'm declining.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Then tell me why you've been coming here.”
Charles glanced at the apartment.
“Because your father asked me to.”
“He died four years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And Lily is six.”
“Yes.”
Daniel's pulse accelerated.
“So he knew.”
Charles didn't answer.
That silence was enough.
Daniel returned inside.
Elena was sitting at the kitchen table.
Lily had gone back to her room.
Daniel remained standing.
“My father knew Lily existed.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since before she was born.”
The betrayal hit harder than Daniel expected.
His father, Richard Mercer, had been difficult, demanding, and emotionally distant.
But Daniel had trusted him.
At least in matters that mattered.
Or he thought he had.
“Start at the beginning.”
Elena wiped her eyes.
Seven years earlier, Daniel and Elena had been planning a future together.
Not formally engaged.
But close.
Daniel remembered apartment listings.
Vacation plans.
The ridiculous list of baby names Elena once made after too much wine.
Then everything changed.
Elena received an opportunity in Seattle.
She told Daniel she wanted to leave.
She said their relationship had become too serious.
Daniel, wounded and proud, let her go.
Except none of that had been true.
“I was pregnant,” Elena said.
Daniel stared.
“I found out two days before I left you.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Richard came to see me first.”
Daniel's chair scraped backward.
“My father?”
“He knew before I had even figured out how to tell you.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel did.
His father's private investigators.
Richard Mercer believed information was protection.
Apparently that included spying on his son's girlfriend.
“What did he say?”
Elena looked toward Lily's bedroom.
“He said your life was about to change. Mercer Capital was negotiating a merger. You were finally becoming the person he'd spent your whole life preparing you to become.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So?”
“He said I would destroy it.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“Elena, you knew me.”
“I did.”
“Then you knew I wouldn't abandon my child.”
“That was exactly what he was afraid of.”
Richard had offered Elena money.
She refused.
Then he threatened her.
Not physically.
Richard was more sophisticated than that.
He told Elena that if she stayed, he would use every legal resource available to challenge her fitness as a mother.
He would claim she was unstable.
Financially irresponsible.
Unprepared.
And because the Mercer family possessed money, attorneys, influence, and connections, he promised she would spend years fighting them.
“I didn't believe him,” Elena said. “Until Charles brought me a folder.”
“What folder?”
“Everything about me.”
Bank statements.
Medical records.
Her mother's debts.
Her employment history.
Even photographs of her entering a therapist's office after her brother died.
Daniel felt sick.
“He said they could make me look unstable.”
Elena nodded.
“And then?”
“I left.”
“Why Queens?”
“I went to Seattle first. Then Boston. I kept moving.”
“With my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
Daniel looked away.
She was right.
And the correction hurt.
For six years Lily had existed.
First steps.
First words.
Birthdays.
Fevers.
Nightmares.
Christmas mornings.
Daniel had missed everything.
“I wrote to you,” Elena said.
He turned.
“What?”
“Dozens of times.”
“I never received anything.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Your father told me.”
Daniel stared.
“He answered one.”
Elena walked to a cabinet and removed a metal box.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
She handed Daniel one envelope.
His name was written across the front.
The envelope had been opened.
Inside was a letter Elena had written shortly after Lily's birth.
Daniel read the first lines.
Daniel,
Her name is Lily Grace Parker.
She was born yesterday at 6:14 in the morning.
She has your eyes.
Daniel stopped.
His hands shook.
At the bottom was a second sheet.
Different handwriting.
His father's.
Elena,
Daniel will never see this letter.
You made your decision.
Keep the agreement, and the child will be provided for.
Break it, and I will do exactly what I promised.
R.M.
Daniel stared until the words blurred.
“My father did this.”
“Yes.”
“And Charles helped.”
“Yes.”
“Why was Charles still coming here?”
Elena hesitated.
“My illness.”
“What illness?”
She looked down.
“Autoimmune disease. Complications got worse last year.”
Daniel remembered the medicine.
“How bad?”
“I manage.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It has been harder lately.”
“Why were you sending Lily alone for medication?”
“The pharmacy is three blocks away.”
“She is six.”
“I know.”
Shame crossed Elena's face.
Daniel immediately regretted his tone.
“I wasn't judging you.”
“Yes, you were.”
“No. I was judging everyone who left you in a position where that seemed necessary.”
Elena looked up.
For the first time, something softened.
Daniel spent the afternoon with Lily.
At first she was shy.
Then she asked whether rich people really had refrigerators with television screens.
Daniel admitted his did.
She thought this was hilarious.
She showed him drawings.
Schoolwork.
A stuffed rabbit named Captain.
Then she asked the question he feared.
“Are you my dad?”
Elena froze.
Daniel crouched in front of Lily.
He refused to lie.
“I think I am.”
Lily studied him.
“You don't know?”
“I only found out today.”
“Oh.”
She considered this with six-year-old seriousness.
Then touched the tattoo on his neck.
“Mom said my dad had that.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
Her face crumpled.
That evening Daniel arranged a private doctor for Elena.
She protested.
He ignored her.
Then he called Rebecca.
“I need everything on Charles Voss.”
“Everything?”
“Financial records. Mercer Capital connections. Trusts. Payments. Anything involving Elena Parker.”
Rebecca went quiet.
“Daniel, what's happening?”
“I found the girl.”
“And?”
Daniel looked at Lily asleep on the sofa.
“She is my daughter.”
Rebecca didn't speak for several seconds.
Then:
“I'll get everything.”
Daniel stayed until Lily went to bed.
Before leaving, Elena stopped him.
“Daniel.”
He turned.
“Your father wasn't the only reason I stayed away.”
“What does that mean?”
She looked frightened.
“After Richard died, I thought it was over.”
“But?”
“Someone kept paying the rent.”
“Charles?”
“I thought so.”
“And now?”
Elena opened the metal box again.
She removed an envelope Daniel hadn't seen.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel recognized himself leaving Mercer Capital six months earlier.
Someone had photographed him from across the street.
Written underneath:
HE STILL DOESN'T KNOW.
Daniel's blood went cold.
“When did you get this?”
“Last week.”
His phone vibrated.
Rebecca.
He answered.
Her voice was tight.
“Daniel, I found the payments.”
“Charles?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
A pause.
“You need to come to the office.”
“Tell me now.”
“I can't.”
“Rebecca.”
“The account paying Elena's rent belongs to someone you see every day.”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
“Who?”
May you like
Rebecca whispered the name.
And Daniel stopped breathing.
